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Amazon may be preparing to refresh its Fire TV Stick lineup for the first time since the company launched the original Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K in 2021.
Two new devices just passed through the FCC website, and while they aren’t explicitly labeled as Fire TV Sticks, signs certainly point in that direction. Detailed specs aren’t available, but we already know that they’ll bring a major update to the wireless capabilities of Amazon’s media streamers.
Listed on the FCC website with model numbers/ FCC IDs of M3N6RA/2A4DH-6392 and K3R6AT/2A4DH-6387 respectively, both devices are both Amazon-branded “digital media receivers”. It looks like the company isn’t bothering to use shell companies anymore, but the company still isn’t putting actual product names in its FCC documents.
As pointed out by AFTVNews, it looks like the M3N6RA model supports WiFi 6, while the K3R6AT supports WiFi 6E.
The only device in Amazon’s current Fire TV media streamer lineup to support WiFi 6E is the 2022 Fire TV Cube, with all of the company’s smaller, cheaper Fire TV Sticks topping out at WiFi 5 (for models released in 2020 or earlier) or WiFi 6 (for the Fire TV 4K Max, which was released in 2021).
Since we don’t know anything about the CPU, GPU, or other features, it’s not clear exactly which Fire TV Stick models Amazon is getting ready to replace. But the fact that one of the new models supports WiFi 6E and the other does not seems to hint that we’re looking at a good/better set of devices. And that could indicate that Amazon plans to update one of these two pairs of products:
- Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite (2020) and Fire TV Stick (2020)
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (2018) and Fire TV Stick 4k Max (2021)
While the Fire TV Stick 4K is currently the oldest model that Amazon is still selling, the entry-level 1080p models are also getting a bit long in the tooth, so they might be next in line for a refresh.
But given how much the prices for 4K-ready media streamers has fallen in recent years, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon and/or other companies eventually phased out models that only support resolutions up to 1080p at some point.
That said, I wouldn’t necessarily expect WiFi 6 or 6E in entry-level products, so we might see the 1080p hardware stick around for a little longer.
Either way, odds are that at least one of these new models will be a next-gen 4K-ready device.
There’s no word on when Amazon will officially announce its new media streamers, but the company does have a habit of introducing new Fire TV and Echo products in the fall.
| Amazon Fire TV lineup (as of September 3, 2023) | |||||
| Fire TV Stick Lite (2020) | Fire TV Stick (2020) | Fire TV Stick 4K (2018) | Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2021) | Fire TV Cube (2022) | |
| Video | 1080p @ 60 fps HDR10+ | 1080p @ 60 fps HDR10+ | 4K @ 60 fps HDR10+ | 4K @ 60 fps HDR10+ | HDR10+4K @ 60 fps HDR10+ |
| CPU | MT8695D 1.7 GHz quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | MT8695D 1.7 GHz quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | MT8695 1.7 GHz quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | MT8696 1.8 GHz quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | Amlogic POP1-G 4 x ARM Cortex-A73 cores @ 2.2 GHz 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores @ 2 GHz 32-bit (software limitation) |
| GPU | IMG GE8300 | IMG GE8300 | IMG GE8300 (650 MHz) | IMG GE9215 (750 MHz) | Mali-G52 MP8 (800MHz) |
| RAM | 1GB DDR4 | 1GB DDR4 | 1.5 GB DDR4 | 2GB DDR4 | 2GB LPDDR4x-4244 |
| Storage | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| WiFi | WiFi 5 2 x 2 MIMO | WiFi 5 2 x 2 MIMO | WiFi 5 2 x 2 MIMO | WiFi 6 2 x 2 MIMO | WiFi 6E 2 x 2 MIMO |
| Bluetooth | BT 5.0 | BT 5.0 | BT 5.0 | BT 5.0 | BT 5.2 |
| Ethernet | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (built-in) |
| USB port | ✓ | ||||
| HDMI input | ✓ | ||||
| AV1 decoding | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Hands-free Alexa | ✓ | ||||
| Speaker | ✓ | ||||
| Remote | Alexa voice remote Lite | Alexa voice remote | Alexa voice remote | Alexa voice remote | Alexa Voice Remote |
| OSÂ | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 6 (Android 7.1) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) |
| List Price | $30 | $40 | $50 | $55 | $140 |
via Janko Rogers and AFTVNews
Who on earth proof reads your articles?
Because in the text it clearly states that only the latest Cube supports WiFi 6, which is then contradicted (and corrected) in the table of specs!!
Thanks for your helpful feedback. I’ve updated the article to reflect that the Cube is the only model to support WiFi 6, while the current-gen Sticks top out at either WiFi 5 or WiFi 6, depending on the model.
nice cpu
anybody know about hacking bootloader?
this is probably linux inside 😉
Its android. Always has been
Core/Libre/EmuELEC, Armbian and DietPi OSes aren’t Android
All true, but the Amazon Fire sticks run FireOS, which is Android. There was one of them where someone got Lineage OS to run, and if you have that level you may be able to take out the rest of Android and try doing something with the kernel that’s left over, but most of them won’t give you the necessary access to try that and, as most phones prove, it’s really not that easy to make them run something other than Android if that’s what they were designed for.
I’m hoping for USB-C power instead of Micro-USB. Figured that would have happened by now because of the new EU rules.
Actually I wonder if the new EU directive does even apply to the Fire TV Stick, the directive includes a list of appliances (Annex 1a) and neither digital media players nor microconsoles are included.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32022L2380
Fingers crossed they get more than 2Gb RAM, microSD and USB3 ports, and the ability to reflash with GNU/Linux OSes!
do dumpsterfire sticks already run amazon linux? amazon is a company I try to avoid, it is bad for the economy, amazon is superWalmartization on steroids, cocaine, vodka and meth all at once
They ran DumpsterFireOS, which is a forked Android. So…yeah, Linux, but if you expect the holy GNU tool chain as dictated by Prophet RMS to be there, you will be disappointed.
I don’t have to work there to know the chances of those things:
“more than 2Gb RAM”: Maybe. I would bet on 2 GB as an upgrade from the previous 1 GB, but it is possible they go to a 3 GB setup.
“microSD”: Probably not, as they’ve not considered that useful before. I don’t know how popular streaming video off a card is given that you’d probably have to swap the card in and out a lot which people don’t often do. People who like local media are more likely to have something on their local network that can be streamed from.
“USB3 ports”: I don’t think so, because the only thing that you can really connect to this is an RJ-45 adapter and I don’t think they need gigabit networking for 4K streaming.
“the ability to reflash with GNU/Linux OSes”: Not a chance. Amazon didn’t spend all that money making their own cut-down Android to drop it. If you can load something else, it will only be if you can find a vulnerability and do the firmware hacking yourself.